Medical Foods: An Underutilized Therapeutic Option for Chronic Disease

Medical Foods are specially formulated nutritional therapies that are intended for the dietary management of disease.  Some indications that "Medical Foods" treat include: Pain, Obesity, Sleep, Cognitive disorders, Fatigue, Hypertension, Asthma, Depression, Osteopenia, Anemia, Inherited Metabolic Disorders and even Gastrointestinal disorders like Ulcerative Colitis or IBS etc.).

Medical Foods must be medically-validated by clinical trials and must meet distinctive nutritional needs for a specific disease state that simply cannot be met by normal diet alone. Also, Medical Foods by law must be administered by mouth/GI tract only. Thus, Medical Foods are available in various enteral nutrition formulas or in oral capsule/tablet forms only. Therefore, there are no intravenous (IV), subcutaneous (SQ) or external preparations (creams or patches) allowed for Medical Foods. 

Medical Foods are very effective standalone therapies. However, in clinical practice they may also be paired/co-administered with medications to help reduce dependence and improve the efficacy of drug therapies since they do not alter the pharmacokinetics of drugs (since they work on different nutrient pathways within our body as compared to drug therapies). 

Medical Foods are regulated by the FDA, however, do not require pre-approval from the FDA for safety because they are prepared from ingredients that are deemed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) which is the highest standard of food safety granted by the FDA for food ingredients in the United States. 

Please note that drug therapies are safety tested in specific diseased patient populations and in healthy individuals only. Whereas, most GRAS ingredients in medical foods have stood the test of time for safety and are considered safe for the "general public". Some experts believe achieving GRAS status is an even higher standard of safety than what is applied to most drug therapies since most drug compounds are only considered safe for a particular indication within a particular patient population at a particular dose for a specified duration of time.

Medical foods are classified somewhere between prescription drug therapies and dietary supplements (nutraceuticals) because they are indicated for people with chronic diseases (may make disease claims) vs. Dietary Supplements that are indicated for healthy populations only. In addition, Medical Foods like drug therapies must have efficacy & disease claims based on recognized scientific principles, peer-reviewed literature, physiologic testing and well-designed clinical trials.

So please look into whether or not a Medical Food can help reduce your dependence on potentially harmful medications (prescription drugs are the 3rd leading cause of death). 

Note: Medical foods are often classified as "dietary supplements" or as "Foods for Special Dietary Use" overseas.  If you want to learn more about a medical foods you may also visit my other blog-site at http://tmpprimer.blogspot.com.tr/. 

Thank you and Have a Happy New Year !!!

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Read our Open Letter and Primer

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